Saro Bistro, New York

Saro Bistro is a tiny place in the Lower East Side serving old world Balkan cuisine.  The restaurant is named after the chef's Bosnian grandmother Saro. The place is charming -- the wait staff like to tell you about the chef and his grandmother, and the type of rustic cuisine they serve. Perhaps they're even part of the family - they certainly don't seem like pros. 

We started off with a platter of cured meats, truffle cheese, alvar and tursija (which were pickled vegetables and fried corn balls - not sure which is which). 

For main dishes, we shared the kale pappardelle, which had both kale in the pasta and sauteed kale and snap peas and plenty of white truffle oil.  The fresh homemade pasta was really nice, and the greens were wonderful.  We also shared the rabbit duo -- smoke pork crusted loin, braised rabbit legs, braised red cabbage, and root vegetable puree with rabbit jus.  I also liked the homey dinnerware that everything was served on.

The food is simple, but delicious - I would definitely go back. 

Saro Bistro
102 Norfolk Street, Lower East Side, NY
T: 212 505 7276

Trattoria Machiavelli, NYC

Guest blogger petitesoeur wanted to share her lovely meal at Trattoria Machiavelli on the Upper West Side:

Breathtaking Tulips & Expertly-made Pasta

One of the best things about New York City is that you can pretend you are somewhere else. Sitting among the 15,000 tulips ablaze in the West Side Community Garden, I'm in Holland rather than on West 89th between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues.

And sitting at the Trattoria Machiavelli's bar, eating a perfectly-prepared Pappardelle Alla Pecora Nera while sipping on a 2009 Aglianico Del Vulture, it was easy to imagine myself have a late afternoon leisurely lunch in Rome.

Trattoria Machiavelli
519 Columbus Avenue (corner of West 85th Street)
http://machiavellinyc.com/

Piatti di Pasta Fresca Fatta a Mano
Pastas are all handmade in the traditional style by Andrea Fiano [pictured left]

Pappardelle Alla Pecora Nera
Sauteed Pappardelle with Tomato Sauce Topped with Prosciutto Crudo, Grilled Zucchini and Fresh Basil

Westside Community Garden
http://www.westsidecommunitygarden.org/

A.Kitchen, Philadelphia

We were up in Philly to see the Brothers Quay beautiful new film shot in the Mütter Museum, and Fougoo arranged for us a reservation at A.Kitchen, a restaurant near Rittenhouse Square that opened this past spring.
We had dinner family-style, sharing several of the small plates they had to offer. We started with a "breakfast" frisee salad that had a warm hash brown, poached egg, and bacon.

We then ordered two items from their "Fish" menu. I really wanted to try to octopus with caramelized watermelon. The octopus was grilled beautifully and it was complemented by the sweetness of the watermelon.There were also drizzles of hot sauce as well.
We also ordered the skate Provençal with fingerling potatoes.

Afterwards, we decided on two pasta dishes. They make their own pasta in house, so it was all very good. First was corkscrews with duck, chanterelle mushrooms, and butternut squash.
We also had the tagliatelle with veal ragu.
For dessert, we shared a lovely chocolate panna cotta.

135 South 18th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 825-7030

Incanto, San Francisco, CA

 If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that we at TIGBG love nose-to-tail eating.  So when we had to go out to San Francisco a couple weeks ago, we made a reservation at Chris Cosentino's (www.offalgood.com) place Incanto, in the Noe Valley neighborhood.  The restaurant is on a quiet corner in a residential area, and is warm and inviting inside.  We were really looking forward to our meal because of the strong porky aroma emanating from the kitchen.

There were two appetizer specials that night, so we ordered both of them -- trotter cake with foie gras, served with a red wine reduction;  and testa (head cheese) ravioli with pig's blood in the pasta, in a sauce that had cinnamon, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, dried fruit.  The trotter cake was the best dish we had that night.  You can't go wrong with a lobe of seared foie gras.  The cake was a bit like scrapple with more meat - chunkier (I got a nice chunk of cartilage in one bite).  I appreciated the use of grapes and wine - a nod to the local region.  The ravioli, though, were a bit disappointing -- I didn't really get any offal-ness - no satisfying funk from the head cheese or blood.  The waitress had described the sauce to us as "kind of like a mole" so that was disappointing as well.  It had none of that concentrated richness of a mole - I mean, yes, it had cinnamon, and pumpkin seeds etc., but not ground in, reduced for hours, had it been a true mole.  One thing the Top Chef judges have dunged people on was calling a dish something that it really wasn't.  If they hadn't said "mole" I wouldn't have been disappointed that it wasn't one.

Because we still had five more days in the Bay area and wanted to conserve our appetites, for our main dishes we each order a half portion from the pasta section rather than one of the larger meat dishes, though we did go all pig (after all, it is their specialty).  Redneckhunter went traditional with handkerchief pasta with pork ragu.  I went with the Corzetti, cotechino, mizuna & pangrattato.  First off, I liked that I didn't know what any of those words meant!  Here's what it was - corzetti are flat round pasta (Incanto's were imprinted with their piggy mascot), cotechino is an Italian sausage sliced thin like salami, mizuna are mustard greens, and pangrattato are breadcrumbs.

 I thought Redneckhunter's was just ok - personally I think he makes a better pork ragu (but then again we get some really delicious ground pork from the Asian market in Plainsboro).  I liked mine, the slight bitterness of the greens and the texture of the breadcrumbs were nice, and I got how they were going for similar flat and round of the sausage and pasta.

For dessert, we also ordered the special which was an ice cream float in strawberry verbena soda.  It was light and refreshing.  All in all, we had a good meal, but not one I'm going to dream about.  Though they celebrate the pig here, it's a far cry from the temple of pork indulgence of the likes of Au Pied de Cochon, by any stretch.

Incanto
1550 Church Street
Noe Valley, SF
415.641.4500

Fiola, DC

Fiola is a recently opened Italian restaurant in DC. It marks the return to the area of James Beard award winning chef Fabio Trabocchi. Despite being open only a few weeks, there is already a back and forth on the net about the food from Fiola. However, I had a pretty great dinner there this week.
I was glad to have a fellow DC foodie along so we were able to try several item from their menu. We started with two antipastos. First was Apulia buffalo mozzarella, roasted tomatoes, and a pesto of basil Genovese. While simple, the ingredients were fantastic, and the flavors particularly of the pesto were confident and delicious.
We also shared a salad of violet baby artichoke, fava beans, English peas, and mint. The peas were a puree at the bottom of the salad. This was light, beautiful and fresh tasting.

For the pasta course, we shared a spaghetti with Dungeness crab, a sauce made of sea urchin, and sprinkled with red chile flakes. This was a wonderfully complex and rich plate. The urchin sauce was creamy and coated the noodles, and the chile added a nice surprise in the mouth.

For my main course, I ordered the Branzino served on a bed of olive oil crushed potato and topped with a brodetto, a stew of littleneck clams and fish. The fish was perfectly prepared- light and tender, and the "sauce" complemented it well, and had a slight kick to it as well.

My friend ordered the veal chop. This was prepared with a layer of mushrooms all wrapped in proscuitto. It was accompanied by hazelnuts and Jerusalem artichoke puree. It was a contrast to the fish course- much more rich and hearty. The veal was also perfectly cooked.






For dessert, we tried two items. I ordered the fennel gelato with blood orange on top of an olive oil semolina cake. The fennel flavor was so good. It had a licorice-like quality without the harshness. The tanginess of the blood orange and the sweetness of the cake went well with the fennel flavor.
My friend had the trifle of fresh strawberry and lemon granita. Like the other dessert, this was a wonderful combination of flavors: the sweetness of the cream, the sour flavor of the granita, and the strawberries.
We also received a trio small petit fours from the pastry chef including a chocolate chip macaroon.
Needless to say, we were stuffed by the end of the meal. I'm very hopeful for Fiola, and I look forward to returning very soon.


601 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington DC
(202)628-2888

Brunch In Brooklyn : Al di là

Brunch at Park Slope's Al di là was good enough that I want to go back to try their impressive dinner menu of North Italian cuisine. We started with a very garlicky fava bean puree that I had no problem polishing off.
My friend got the banana & mascarpone cheese pancakes while I opted for a spaghetti with pancetta and chard. My plate was simple but so delicious. The pasta was wonderful, light and flavorful.

248 5th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY
(718)783-4565

Sometimes Dining- Green Tees

Went to another great dinner with underground dining group, Sometimes Dining this past weekend. Because it's been so warm in the city, we were seated in their backyard under a tarp amidst torches and candles.


We started noshing on a nice charcuterie plate of garlic sausages, lardons, and date roll with some homemade bread that had a wonderful crust.

The first course was pan seared baby artichoke with spring onion pesto served on a nice cider crepe.

The second course was a cool dish of sliced grilled bison with vanilla black-eyed peas, a smoked egg, and grapefruit zest. The bison was nice and lean. I enjoyed the vanilla flavor to the peas quite a bit.

Their usual mid meal toast was a nice sweet drink of Aperol and prosecco. I had only learned the day before about Aperol, a rhubarb based aperatif, which I had with some Dolin vermouth.





Before the entree, we snacked on some nice fresh endive with a tarragon dip.

The main course was one of my favorites I've had at Sometimes Dining: homemade beet and goat cheese ravioli served with prosciutto and olive oil. The saltiness of the meat pair so well with the sweetness of the beets and the creaminess of the goat cheese.




Dessert was also pretty spectacular. We had a minted tres leches cake served with some candied rhubarb. Bigfatlar said he wished fruit rollups were as good as that piece of rhubarb.

Garces Trading Company, Philadelphia

We went for a great supper at Garces Trading Company, a small bistro, wine store, butcher, cheese shop, and bakery from Chef Jose Garces.
Seating is in the center of the store, and the atmosphere is nice and casual.
We started with a few selections of items from the cheese menu. The housemade mozzarella was spectacularly. It was served drizzled in olive oil and covered with sea salt and pepper.
We also got a 15 month French Comte cheese served with apple slices.


We had to order a few items off the charcuterie menu as well.
The housemade chicken liver mousse with a shallot confit was terrific, and it went really well with the housemade bread that had a great crust.

We also tried the housemade fennel sausage served with a nice mustard.
















We tried two salads. The first was Insalata Semplice, baby greens, pomegranate, pistachio dusted
goat cheese and blood orange vinaigrette.

I preferred the Endive Salad with sevilla orange, bucherondin (a goat's milk cheese), golden raisins, and Anjou pears.







We then ordered a few hot plates. First was the Margherita Pizza. The crust was really nice and crisp.
When we have time the next time, we will need to try the decadent looking deep dish pizza on the menu.

We also got a pasta order, the Parpadelle with Lamb Ragu.

For dessert, we shared a lemon meringue tarte and my favorite, the spring verrine, a buttermilk panna cotta with grapefruit curd, topped with pistachio-hazelnut crunch.

1113 Locust Street
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 574-1099